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Friday, November 4, 2016

Slab! Finally...

It has been a very long and slow 35 days since my last post. In that time very little happened on the block. It actually got to the point where I was chasing up Boutique to complain about the delays. Normally it only takes 2 weeks to get the plumbing, electrical and slab down. In our case it has taken much longer.

Our weekly updates from our client liaison were emotionless and completely ignored the fact that we were experiencing delays. We basically received the same email week after week saying that "this week your slab is scheduled to be poured etc". When nothing happened on the block the same email would be sent again the following week.

Pipes ready to be installed but not much else happening

Most of the pipes and electrical in

I called our site supervisor directly and he advised that along with the weather, he was also just snowed under with the sheer volume of builds he was working on. This was concerning to hear as this wasn't the level of service we expected from Boutique. We choose Boutqiue because they weren't a "volume builder" however it appears we might have been mistaken!

During the very wet weather. It took a couple of days to dry out

We watched the 2 Homebuyers Center and other Boutique home in our street go from slab to roof stages and we just saw our block sitting there. It was like our block was sent to the end of the build line.

After making contact with our site supervisor and emailing my concerns to our liaison we finally received word that they were confident that they would be able to box the frame up ready for the slab. We became very concerned as on the Friday of that week nothing had happened. We then took a walk to the block on Sunday to give my parents a tour of the area and we happened to see the slab frame up. They must have worked on the Saturday! At least something had finally happened.

With the Melbourne Cup holiday on the Tuesday, Boutique closed their offices for the Monday and Tuesday. This meant we didn't get our weekly update from Boutique until late Thursday afternoon. The email stated the slab was booked to get poured this week and with the good weather forecast and the frame boxed up last week we assumed this would be the case. Good news!

As we had advised Boutique earlier that we wanted a Pre-Slab inspection I called our supervisor as soon as I received the email from the office and confirmed if the inspection had been arranged (normally the client would arrange the inspections however I had been advised by Boutique that for the slab the site supervisor would arrange it so they can make sure they aren't delayed).

Unfortunately, when speaking to the supervisor he advised me that he was unaware that we wanted the slab inspected and the pour was due first thing Friday morning. At 4:00pm on a Thursday there was no way I could get the inspection in without delaying the pour. Not wanting to push the progress back anymore than what had already occurred I advised him to go ahead with the pour as planned.

Frustrated and annoyed at the lack of communication between the office and the supervisor yet excited about the slab finally happening I called the Boutqiue offices for an explanation to the lack of an inspection. I spoke to the client liaison manager who was very sympathetic to our situation and asked me to send her an email outlining all my concerns. I sat down that night and wrote everything down, which in itself was a soothing process.

The following morning I received a call from the supervisor at around 9:00am advising me that the slab pour was going ahead as scheduled. I could actually hear the trucks in the background as well! We waited all day and went and had a look at 7.30pm when we knew the trades would be gone to take a few photos.

It has been 57 days since our temp fence went up on our block to the slab being poured. I believe the standard for most builds is 14 days. Either we have been really unlucky or Boutique Homes isn't the builder we expected. We are hoping for the former but I guess we will wait and see.